ThinkSmart Secures New Funding Agreement In UK

ThinkSmart Signs Secure Trust Bank As UK Funding Partner: Positions For Further Growth

ThinkSmart signs Secure Trust Bank as funding partner in UK

Secure Trust Bank funding agreement in place through to 2013

Funding agreement positions ThinkSmart for further growth

ThinkSmart Limited (ASX:TSM), a leading international computer and office equipment financing company, has positioned itself for further growth in the UK by signing a wholesale funding agreement with Secure Trust Bank.

The three-and-a-half year agreement with Secure Trust Bank, part of the Arbuthnot Banking Group, positions Secure Trust as ThinkSmart’s primary business-to-business funder to their profitable and growing UK operations, which has exclusivity on business-to-business rental finance with PC World until 2013.

“The agreement with Secure Trust Bank gives us additional capability in the UK and comes at a time when we see significant opportunities in that market,” said ThinkSmart Executive Chairman and CEO, Ned Montarello.

“We are excited by the broader opportunities that this new partnership will offer us to capture market.” Mr Montarello said.

ThinkSmart, which has been operating in the UK for more than seven years, has an exclusive agreement with PC World, which has more than 160 stores that tap into more than 4.4 million small-and-medium-sized enterprises in the United Kingdom.

PC World is owned by DSG International Plc, the UK’s largest consumer electronics retailer, whose other brands include Currys and Dixons.

“We are confident of growing our product offering to small-and-medium-sized businesses in the UK as well as launching our product to the consumer segment of the market,” said Mr Montarello. “Our agreement with Secure Trust Bank to fund Business-to-Business contracts will help facilitate our growth plans.”

Mr Montarello said the agreement with Secure Trust Bank reflects ThinkSmart’s focus throughout 2010 of expanding the company’s market share through existing retail relationships and growing funding relationships.

“We are seeing opportunities for growth emerging in Europe and we’re taking the initiative to capitalise on those opportunities,” said Mr Montarello.

“We recently boosted our funding capability in Spain, adding Societe Generale as a new funder alongside our established relationship with Banco Santander,” said Mr Montarello.

“Our agreement with Secure Trust Bank is along similar lines as to what we struck with Societe Generale in that we accept the credit risk and fully provision for forecast credit losses up front.

“And we are comfortable in accepting this increased risk. Our disciplined approach and 7 year trading history in the UK allows us to confidently predict and provision for any delinquent contracts,” said Mr Montarello.